What's Keeping Me Awake at Night. . .

Early in my career at ASE, I bought the book How to Work a Room by Susan RoAne. I thought it would be beneficial to me since my natural style is much more introverted than extroverted. With the help of this book and several others I have been successful in learning to play an extrovert throughout my career. When I recently came across several lists of conversation triggers, they reminded me of things I learned through these books, and I knew I wanted to share it with our...

In my last blog I mentioned several top management books, several of which I have read. As I was writing, I began to think about key trends that appear in every management or leadership book I’ve read. Then I came across a list of six signs of a true leader and realized that for as many different books that there are about leadership, they all tend to focus in on these key traits.

For those of you that know me, you know I enjoy reading. My iPad is now full of books that I download, and my basement has six bookcases full of books. I’m always looking for good books to read. When I came across a list of the 15 best reads for new managers (according to Twitter followers of past Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson), I thought it would be a good list to share. After reading the article I realized I have read several books on the list.

I am addicted to Daily Celebrity Crossword, Word Cookies, and What Diff? These are all games I play on my phone. It started out a few years ago when I was in Florida visiting my 80-year old mom. I was trying to make sure her brain stays alert and active so I downloaded a few games for her. But the funny thing is, since then, I have been playing these games several times a week. I justify my time by telling myself it is good for my brain. So when I came...

Years ago, wellness in the workplace, for the most part, focused on weight loss programs and smoking cessation. In today’s workplace it considers the total wellbeing of each employee. Wellness today encompasses the mental aspect as well as physical.

Employee engagement is an ongoing challenge for any HR department. One often overlooked contributor to employee engagement is career development. To help employees develop their career they must be offered valuable learning experiences in the workplace.

At ASE’s Annual Summit last Wednesday we had the pleasure to hear keynote speaker, Michael Veltri, speak. He asked the audience, “What decisions are you delaying that might be holding you back?” This struck a chord with me and reminded me of one of my favorite quotes by Benjamin Franklin, “Don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today.”

Like most of my female friends and colleagues, I have not been surprised by the overwhelming response to the “Me Too” campaign. It seems as though it’s more common to be able to say, “Me Too” than to not. And I’ll admit that I can say “Me Too,” as many of my friends and colleagues have. How did this problem get so out of hand?

I recently read an article from the author of The Mythical Leader, Ron Edmondson. I found it to provide a nice checklist for leaders to review periodically to make sure they are leading, and not just maintaining.

I read an interesting statistic the other day – only 15% of employees believe that their organization always shares the challenges they are facing, and 21% say their organizations never share this information. I fail to see the benefit of not sharing an organization’s challenges with staff.

The other day I ran across an article that spoke about work spouses. I had never heard of that term so I read further. Keep in mind, several weeks ago I wrote about hugging in the workplace, which I indicated I do not do, although apparently that is a “thing” too. As I read more about it, I realized I do not have a work spouse, but thought it might have something to do with my title here.

I am the youngest of seven kids. A typical, Irish-Mexican, Catholic family. Being the youngest, one of the things I missed out on was having a babysitter. My older siblings had that task and were never very happy about it. I distinctly remember them keeping me occupied with shiny objects, so when I read an article recently on Shiny Object Syndrome in business, it caught my attention.

I have always been fascinated with emotional intelligence, in fact, I find it to be more important than IQ at times. I look for high EQ in my personal as well as my professional relationships. I think we have all encountered people with low EQ and realize it creates an unhealthy environment – whether at work or home. Recently I read an interesting article on what it looks like when someone is not emotionally intelligent. I found it interesting since I’ve often seen...